By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Regular readers know State Senator Joe Kyrillos‘s defection to the Bush camp is not really news, Save Jerseyans, but confirmation from The Washington Post on Monday night of a pending endorsement (and news of a $10,000 donation) is still unwelcome news for Governor Chris Christie on the same day that he scored his lowest-ever approval rating in a reliable public poll.
It was a split that’s been years in the making.
Sources around Monmouth County have repeated as gospel in recent months that Kyrillos, who was introduced to his wife by Christie, never really forgave the Governor for choosing Jeff Chiesa over him to fill Frank Lautenberg‘s vacated seat back in 2013 almost one year after Kyrillos’s own ill-fated U.S. Senate campaign against Bob Menendez. The story goes that Kyrillos chaffed under a lack of perceived messaging/campaign help (see: “the hug“) and fundraising support from the Front Office.
Then the Governor’s mishandling of the Bridgegate scandal was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so say Kyrillos’s defenders. His detractors? The Senator capitalized on his old friend’s vulnerability to trade up long after he was warned, so they say, to not run in 2012 and risk a trouncing that would bar Christie from appointing him in the future.
To make matters worse, both men are known for being a bit on the sensitive side. Communication broke down, things were said (and weren’t said), and suddenly the former Christie campaign chairman is showing up at a Bush dinner in NYC…. and then this:
Who’s right? And who’s wrong? You be the judge, Save Jerseyans. Suffice it to say, nothing is going to put this shattered relationship back together again.
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Wish he would back Cruz
No Bush No Clinton in 2016. Sorry Senator.
He’s been in office too long without measurable conservative results. Just another RINO. Time for him to go.
While Bush has money, he has no chance of winning. Even if the establishment wants the whole “Bush v Clinton” again, it won’t happen. We’re taking our country back from the trenches.
Christie has lost his way. He needs to get back and basic. Forget the national stage. Jersey has enough problems.
If the nominee for the GOP is Bush, Christie or Romney; many of us will stay home or vote Libertarian
I like Joe and I think he got a raw deal. This state should have sent Menendez packing because it was obvious then that he was corrupt beyond imagination and ineffective in DC. But of course a good man was put up as a sacrificial lamb when he could have won. Its situations like this that demonstrate we need to fight for quality pragmatic Republican candidates over the trash the Democrats run in this state.
He’s still backing the wrong candidate.